Most Efficient Late Game Greek Army?

[Subutai13]

Just as some background...
I'm playing with version 5.9.20 and I've conquered macedon, thrace, syracuse, cyrencia, rhodes, byzantium, and have just launched an invasion into rome.

So far I'm fairly successful but i'd like to hear some good battle strategies (since i'm a noob). I created a "fantasy" army not really thinking about strategy but more interested in the skins and units.


My current army (which is subject to change), consists of 4 armoured phalangites, peri hoplites, athenian hoplites, two sacred bands, two hypaspists, 6 thorakti, 3 epliptikoi cavalry (sp?) and a general.

My hoplites are in shield wall formation. Attached is my basic strategy.

[Pinkie Pie]

i would go with 5 units of armoured phalanxes, 2 units of spartan royal guards, 4 units of Cappadocian cavalry 2 units of rhodian slingers 4 units of syrian archers and 3 generals but its not very cost effective and not easy to retrain

[Subutai13]

i would go with 5 units of armoured phalanxes, 2 units of spartan royal guards, 4 units of Cappadocian cavalry 2 units of rhodian slingers 4 units of syrian archers and 3 generals but its not very cost effective and not easy to retrain

haha definitely not very cost effective. I dont have the ability to train syrian archers and its hardly even worth ferrying rhodian slingers back and forth. where can i get cappadocian cavalry? After waiting for one unit of srg im less than enthusiastic to base an army around them. My current army is the basic invasion army ive been using for my campaigns, upgrading as I upgrade my barracks.

Should rephrase title to "most practical greek army for long campaigns with retrainability and highly cost effective"

[Pinkie Pie]

Cappadocian cavalry are available in pontic terratory and if you do that you ruin my army
I would trade down the phalanx to the standard one, militia if the enemy armies are weak, Syrian archers are a must as they are one of the best ranged units and an extra general never hurts.

[Subutai13]

k ill try it. but against the ai it doesnt really matter anyway

[Pinkie Pie]

Of course it matters, if you trade down to the standard phalanx then you can field stronger cavalry and not increase your upkeep.

[Subutai13]

yes, because a slightly more powerful cavalry force makes such a big difference when charging a phalanx from behind

[Pinkie Pie]

cant charge into the back of a phalanx if their cavalry overpowers yours

[Subutai13]

well im not saying my strategy is the best, or even telling you to try it. Its probably not the most cost efficient but it is the most fun (for me).

proof that it works, i like how few casualties you take, allowing for longer campaigns.

[Pinkie Pie]

It isnt really proof unless we know the difficulty lvl and what the other army consited of.

[Subutai13]

I believe its m/m against heavy scutarii and heavy spearmen mostly. (after reading about how difficult some campaigns were in xgm i wanted to make my first one pretty easy)

attached is an example where weak phalangites and heavy cavalry arent very effective. this was a siege battle where i had three armoured phalangites and one regular. you can clearly see how much more effective the armoured ones were, both casualty and killing wise. also, i find the cavalry arent very effective in street fights unless you take the time to send them all the way around.

note* this is an adapted army that i made for sieging purposes. Im attacking south iberia which is relatively undefended so some siege helps me pile drive through more quickly.

[valithor]

my favorite army is any type of infantry that can form phalnx about 8 of those in front line then archers about 8-10 of those behind phalnx guys then greek calvary on each side 2-4 and the greek calvary useally have the general so you can keep 2 back behind in case the 2 on sides can not manage all the rest